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pic morę years of cogitation and discussion that I arrived at a reasonable, and I think vcry prob-ably correct, conclusion.

After any such battle, as soon as the fighting was over, the dead were stripped, and every weapon, every piece of armour, every ring or collar of value was salvaged there and then in batch-es - such initial clearing up not being a matter of simple looting. Ir was performed carefiilly and deliberately by the victorious French. The swords in this group are not all English, for English and French dead were treated in the same way. Thus, although the swords, which fali into three distinct type-groups, are very similar, it is not possible to differentiate them by nationality.

Among these eighty swords must be the sword of the great Talbot himself. Fle was an old man, probably about seventy years old - a great age for that period - and had been captured and ransomed by the French many times._.The last time had been at Patay in 1429, where he was seriously wounded as he was remounting his horse. On that occasion, the King of France, Charles VII, refused to allow him to be ransomed except on condition that he swore never to wear armour or draw sword against the French again.

Consecjuently, when he led this specially-raised task-force in 1452, to go to the relief of the besieged English-held town of Castillon, he, being an honourable knight, wore his ordinary civilian clothes, with just a cap on his head instead of a helmet. The French were in a strong position, rather like a Roman marching camp, with their artillery and hand-gun men protected by a breast-high earth-work. This gave the English archers no chance to use their weapons

Figurę 126. Rapier Spanish, c. 1530-1540, with a fully developed swept hilt. In a private collection.